Palm Treo Pro CDMA Review

Messaging:

One of the most useful upgrades in Windows Mobile 6.1 is the threaded text messaging, but Palm has been doing this for years.  On the 800w Palm stuck with their application; it is unfortunately absent on the Pro.  It’s a minor gripe, as the functionally is basically the same, but we appreciated the little touches like smiley shortcuts and felt the look was better overall.  Windows Messenger is bundled with the device, as is Sprint’s Instant Messenger program which integrates AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger into one application.

The Pro does email as well. It supports most common formats, such as POP3, IMAP, SMTP, Lotus Domino as well as Microsoft Direct Push. When connected with an Exchange account the user gets real time emails, otherwise accounts can be set to check at intervals ranging from every five minutes to once a day. The user can view and send most attachments, such as Office documents and PDF files.


Connectivity and Data:

Sprint’s Treo Pro is a CDMA device, with 3G data.  It features EVDO Rev. A and Wi-Fi b/g.  For short range communication the Pro offers both infrared and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, which supports the following profiles: HSP, HFP, OPP, GAP, SPP, SDAP, HID, GAVDP,  A2DP, AVRC, PAN, SAP and PBAP.

Wi-Fi on the Pro is a great feature, but Palm’s implementation here sucks.  The connection is dropped once the device goes to sleep by default, meaning that the user has to reinitiate the connection with the Wi-Fi switch.  In the preferences this can be changed to automatically connect on wakeup.  We understand that disabling it during sleep saves battery, but at the same time it means that if Wi-Fi is the only data connection the user will not get email notifications, etc, when the device is sleeping.

Some reports had the Pro being able to do simultaneous voice and data, but at least on our unit this was not the case.  Since the device has not been officially released yet this is of course subject to change and we will update our review accordingly.

ActiveSync handles all the data transfer between your phone and PC. It interfaces with Outlook, allowing the user to both back up their data and stay connected on the go.

HTC has been including Opera Mobile in many of their ROMs, but unfortunately the Pro ships only with Internet Explorer.  Luckily it is at least IE6, which includes native flash support and has a page overview function for easier navigation.  At face value there really isn't much different though, and while better IE6 is still leagues behind other browsers and we still recommend an immediate download of Opera Mobile 9.5 or Skyfire to beef up your browsing experience.